Increased church security expected this weekend

Churches across the nation are likely enhancing security measures in the wake of Wednesday’s deadly shooting at a historic church in Charleston, S.C., a church security specialist said Friday.

“Every church across the country, if they have real security, they’re going to be on an elevated alert this weekend,” said Carl Chinn, who is based in Colorado but holds seminars around the country on security tactics in faith-based settings.

Shootings such as the one that killed nine people in Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church often “spawn others – copycats,” Chinn said.

While racism appears to be at the root of the shooter’s motive, Chinn said he is convinced the setting was no coincidence.

“I don’t know how you could say it’s not a church attack,” he said.

Not only did the shooting occur inside a church, he said, four pastors were among those killed.

“The church is a connection to a community,” Chinn said. “It’s awful. I hurt for those people.”

Wichita is no stranger to violence inside a church: Abortion provider George Tiller was shot to death inside Reformation Lutheran Church on May 31, 2009, by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder, who was convicted of murder.

An employee on Friday would not discuss how the church’s security measures have evolved in the years since Tiller’s death, or whether enhanced security will be present this weekend.

But various Wichita churches will have more security present this weekend, pastors told The Eagle earlier this week. The Kansas African American Museum also said it is increasing security.

The Most Rev. Carl Kemme, bishop of Catholic Diocese of Wichita, said he plans “no sweeping changes” in diocesan security policies in the wake of the Charleston shooting. Because the settings for the 95 parishes in the diocese vary so greatly, security measures are on a parish by parish basis.

“This has given us pause about how vulnerable we all are,” Kemme said in a statement.

Kemme said he may bring up security questions and issues at a future priests conference.

Chinn said more than 300 people attended a security seminar he held in Wichita about six months ago. Many were affiliated with area churches.

“It’s not a roll-in-the-dirt, military-forces type of training,” Chinn said.

Because of the setting, he said, effective security at a church should not include metal detectors or armed guards at the door.

Instead, he said, it involves “an active and aware presence” featuring people who are assigned to “look for those things that don’t look right.”

That would include, for instance, someone wearing a trench coat or sweater on a hot day. Or someone who seems unusually anxious or wary.

An effective security team – or “church safety ministry,” as Chinn likes to call them – would blend in with the arriving congregation.

“Are they equipped to intervene? Absolutely,” Chinn said. “Are some of them armed? Absolutely. Do they look like the ‘Men in Black’? Absolutely not.”

Effective tactics to address someone behaving suspiciously include simply greeting them and starting a conversation, Chinn said. Someone planning a surprise attack wants to go unnoticed so they can blend in. Losing the element of surprise may be enough for the attacker to abandon the assault.

A welcoming hug can be a way to check a suspicious person for hidden weapons, Chinn said.

“You ask the right questions,” he said. “If you get the wrong answers, you take actions.”

Video surveillance systems are a good investment for churches, Chinn said, but the cameras shouldn’t be easy to spot.

“What I like to see is cameras in a church that are extremely subtle, to where 95 percent of the people who come to church never sees the cameras,” he said.

This story was originally published June 19, 2015 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Increased church security expected this weekend."